Since the EU official announced that it had launched a countervailing investigation into the three Chinese electric car companies sold in Europe, it was formally decided to impose tariffs in the middle of this year, so that Chinese independent brand car companies, which originally used electric cars to “counter-attack” the European car market, had to rethink their strategy for this market.
As a result, some local enterprises that are more optimistic about the development of their own sales choose to speed up their industrialization layout in Europe.
Such as BYD’s Hungarian plant.
Chery’s former Nissan plant in Barcelona, which is scheduled to start production this year.
and SAIC Mingjue, Geely-Volvo, which already have production in Europe.
However, it is worth noting that while actively implementing production on the ground, everyone seems to have ignored a crucial condition-the EU “scrapped car regulations”.
Every new car must have 25% recycled plastic, and last year, the global discussion about plastic pollution reached an unprecedented heat.
First of all, the Fifth United Nations Environmental Conference adopted the end of plastic pollution: the formulation of a legally binding International instrument (EA.5/Res.14), followed by the European Union updated the regulations on scrapped cars.
The regulations clearly stipulate that from 2030, recycled plastics (PCR) must account for at least 25% of the new car plastics manufactured and sold in the European market, and 25% of the recycled plastics must come from the recycling of scrapped vehicles, that is, the plastic composition of each new car must contain at least 6.
25% of the recycled plastics from scrapped vehicles.
As soon as the news was released, it immediately aroused widespread concern and discussion from all walks of life, including doubts.
In view of the advantages of plastics in reducing vehicle weight and improving fuel efficiency, the demand for plastics in the automotive industry has been growing for many years, with an average of 150 to 200 kilograms of plastic per car in Europe.
As a result, 25% of recycled plastic means that each car needs to contain at least 37.
5 kg of recycled material.
Volvo’s average material breakdown per car in 2023.
Among them, thermoplastics account for 13%.
Based on the quality of Volvo EX30 1770kg, it uses 230 kg of thermoplastics per bike.
Picture source: Volvo Automotive Group 2023 Sustainability report, EuRIC science and policy adviser Alejandro Navazas expressed concern about scrapped automotive plastic recycling technology.
He pointed out that for common plastic parts, especially external parts such as bumpers and headlights, manufacturers have the responsibility to improve their recyclability to increase the supply of recycled materials, but this also poses a higher challenge to the industry’s recycling technology and processes.
If 2030 comes, the recycling mechanism of scrapped plastics is still not effective and sound, and the shortage of recycled materials will give rise to new problems.
Timo Unger, senior manager of sustainable development and environmental affairs at Hyundai Automotive European Technology Center, points out that if there is not enough recycled material somewhere, plastic must be transported from different manufacturing countries to make car parts for export.
Does the resulting increased transport energy consumption count as low carbon? Source: BMW i5 Life cycle Assessment report, you know, the proportion of recycled plastics is not limited to the automotive industry.
The EU also requires at least 30 per cent of recycled plastics in consumer PET bottles to be used by 2030.
Industry leaders such as Coca-Cola have promised to far exceed this standard.
This trend indicates that most industries in Europe may enter the closed-loop consumption mode of plastics in the future to ensure a stable supply of recycled plastics in the industry.
Therefore, the material recovery, disassembly and extraction of scrapped vehicles will face more stringent challenges.
Under the background that the field of automotive recycled plastics has not yet reached the level of recycling, it is particularly important to improve the recyclability of materials.
At the same time, the development of a legally binding international instrument on plastic pollution, including the marine environment, is being accelerated and consensus is expected to be reached as soon as November this year.
As one of the main application fields of plastics, the source structure and recycling of automotive plastics are likely to usher in new changes.
Against the backdrop of growing environmental awareness and global companies actively pursuing the goal of carbon neutrality, Volvo announced its environmental commitment as early as 2019: at least 25% of the plastics used in all new cars will come from renewable and bio-based materials by 2025.
Then Mercedes-Benz, BMW, Audi, Volkswagen, Honda, Hyundai and Kia all launched the research and application of recycled plastics one after another.
In 2023, Volvo launched the EX30, which reached an all-time high in the use of recycled and bio-based materials, with 17 per cent of plastics, 17 per cent of steel and 25 per cent of aluminum coming from renewable sources.
The vehicle’s centre console trim panel and bumper bottom plastic are made of 30 per cent recycled material, while the seats use a bio-based interior material called Nordico ®, which is made of natural materials such as cork and turpentine and about 17 per cent of recycled plastic.
Photo: Volvo, Toyota, by contrast, is more cautious in its planning.
It says it will maximize the recycling of resources in Japan and Europe by 2050 and increase the adoption rate of vehicle recycled materials to more than 30%.
To this end, Toyota began to apply recycled resin to new car parts in 2022, and gradually expanded its scope of use.
This year, Toyota’s recycled resin use index increased 0.
7 times in Japan and 1.
4 times in new cars made in Europe.
According to the plan, the use of recycled resin in Toyota’s new cars will triple or more by 2030.
Hyundai Motor, as a non-European car company that sells new cars around the world, has also shown a positive attitude in terms of sustainable development.
According to its “2023 Sustainable Development report”, Hyundai Automobile continues to develop and improve internal and external vehicle recycling material technology and new vehicle model application system.
In order to meet the requirements of the regulations on scrapped vehicles, Hyundai has formulated specific plans for the application of recycled plastics for models in the European market, and is establishing a system to continuously monitor the implementation of these goals.
it has also set up a special company-wide committee to strengthen the development of plastic recycling technology, the formation of supply chain and the revitalization of plastic recycling ecosystem.
In order to further upgrade the new challenges posed by the application of recycled plastics in new cars.
Although General Motors, another American automaker, has not released a detailed response strategy,But GM used more than 39 million pounds of recycled plastic in the past year, according to its 2023 Sustainability report.
“while not all vehicles provide such materials, each application provides valuable insights that bring us closer to achieving sustainable development goals.
” This is emphasized in the report.
GM 2023 recycled plastics application field.
picture source: general Motors 2023 Sustainable Development report, Chinese car companies have a long way to go, in the article “Wind and Rain is about to come” released by Gaishi Motors, the article “Great changes in the Automobile Industry” has clearly pointed out that the primary problem of plastic recycling for scrapped cars in China lies in the difficulty of recycling.
The scrapped automobile recycling industry is complex, with a variety of materials for a single product and significant differences among automobile enterprises, which makes it difficult for automotive plastic recycling to form a benign development trend of high efficiency and low cost, not to mention the digital traceability of the material itself.
It is undeniable that with the successive implementation of national policies such as the pilot implementation Program for the extension of producer responsibility of Automotive products and the Action Plan for promoting large-scale equipment Renewal and Consumer goods Trade-in, clear development goals have been set for automobile scrapping and recycling of new cars by automobile enterprises, and certain results have been achieved.
For example, Geely Holdings Group, the parent company of Volvo Automobile Group, by the end of 2023, it has established an integrated recycling ecosystem around the five business sectors of recycled vehicles, recycled parts, recycled materials, battery recycling and recycling business.
standardize the recycling process of scrapped cars, and form an industry alliance recycling model with automobile factories as the core.
The case of environmental protection materials in Geely Holdings Group Picture source: Geely Holdings 2023 Sustainable Development report.
In terms of recycled materials, Geely Holdings Group has completed the development and project application of recycled polypropylene (PP), recycled engineering plastic alloy (PC+ABS), bio-based polyvinyl chloride (PVC), recycled polyester fiber (PET fiber), recycled polyamide fiber (PA fiber), wool blended fabric, low-carbon cast aluminum and low-carbon aluminum profiles.
Another representative of the local car company, Weilai, jointly launched a “Clean+” series of environmentally friendly materials with partners, covering renewable, recycled, low-carbon and other types.
Take the new 2023 EC6 model as an example, whose carpet bracket is made of bio-based material PA56, which can reduce carbon emissions per unit weight by about 50 per cent.
Although independent head enterprises are actively exploring, we must be soberly aware that 2030 is not a distant buffer period.
From the above enterprise development path, we can see that this is not a simple material replacement problem.
Take Toyota Motor as an example, it actively promotes the car disassembly and recycling project around the world, and set up the first automobile disassembly and recycling company with the Beijing cooperative enterprise as early as 2014.
At the same time, the recyclability design is introduced in the new car development stage.
at present, the rapid disassembly design of many parts such as automobile wire harness, terminal and door trim panel has been realized and marked in the corresponding position.
Wang Hong, executive vice president and secretary general of Ningbo auto parts industry association, once suggested that automotive plastic manufacturing process should use recyclable, compatible and environmentally friendly materials, and reduce or avoid the use of many kinds of plastics in the same product, as well as paint, electroplating, capacitance and other forms of surface coating, and toxic and harmful materials.
All in all, from the beginning of design, a plastic part needs to consider the recyclability of materials, the convenience and extractability of product disassembly, as well as meet the performance and life requirements of raw materials, while controlling costs.
This involves the coordination of the whole industry chain, such as raw material enterprises, parts enterprises, vehicle enterprises, recycling enterprises, extraction enterprises and so on.
The lack of any link will affect the wide application of recycled plastics in the automotive industry.
However, it is obvious that at the present stage, most of the enterprises in China’s automobile industry are in their own camp, so how to break down the cooperation barriers among enterprises, so as to build a more perfect recycling, disassembly, extraction and reuse of the whole industry chain, and form a more well-ordered business model, and then promote the formulation of relevant standards of automotive plastics, which has become the bottom support for large-scale boarding of automotive recycled plastics in China.
It also determines the key for China’s local cars to stand firm in the European car market.
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